The Iola Public Library is looking to turn a little-used asset into a gift for the community.
Just out the library’s back door is the Flewharty-Powell Annex, the home of the late Nancy Flewharty and left to the library in 2009.
Ever since, library officials have struggled to use the property to its fullest. Last year, a Flewharty-Powell Annex steering committee was formed to determine the future of the home. In discussions with an architect, the committee was told the home poses no restrictions on what they can do with the space.
With that information in hand, library board members decided using the home as a “makerspace” is the best way to “make it an asset to the community,” said Sharon Moreland, library director.
“Makerspaces are becoming more and more prevalent with libraries,” said Moreland.
A makerspace is a collaborative workspace typically inside a public building for making, learning, exploring, and sharing.
A makerspace can be an arts center. “The Lawrence Arts Center was brought up as a potential model for us,” said Moreland. “I’m a potter — I don’t have a place to do pottery. I think that having an art space would benefit the community.”
It can be an industrial makerspace.
Or it can provide space for sewing, 3D printing, or be a light/sound studio.
A makerspace is whatever a community decides it needs and wants.
“Thrive Allen County has Community Conversations and what has come up is a need for more things to do,” noted Moreland.
“We have a very successful crochet group that now meets Monday nights at the Flewharty,” Moreland said. “We want to breathe life back into the house.”
She added that she thinks Nancy Flewharty, who gifted the house to the library, would appreciate having the house’s lights on in the evening and filled with kids and activities. In addition, the Flewharty kitchen will be utilized for a “Kids in the Kitchen” program on March 13. Moreland said the expansive yard has been used extensively for summer reading and a plant swap.
The Flewharty does have structural issues that need to be addressed, including making the house ADA compliant. This has been one of the drawbacks of fully using the house, said Moreland.
“The M. Lee Brown family and Keith Keller are going to work with the library to get a ramp built,” she added. “That just came about right at the end of 2023.”
